“The budget we passed today is balanced and on time, but most important, it makes investments that make people’s lives better. That means more support for students in our classrooms. That means more children will be able to escape poverty. That means more students will be able to afford college. That means more workers will have jobs building housing that families can afford to live in. That means more veterans will get help accessing the benefits and services they earned. And that means more working families will be able to find the child care that helps them keep their jobs.

“The budget also plans for the future and prepares for emergencies by responsibly paying down debt and building up reserves. No budget is perfect, and no side got everything they wanted. But with the investments we made and the restraint we showed, this budget absolutely keeps faith with the vital priorities of ensuring stability and expanding opportunity.”

--Toni G. Atkins, Speaker of the Assembly

(Sacramento) – Assembly Budget Committee Chair Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) is praising the passage of another balanced and on-time state budget. "This budget is balanced and on time, but most important, it makes investments in people's lives," said Assemblymember Skinner. "The budget is true to the Assembly's goals of ensuring fiscal stability, while making investments that benefit each and every Californian. The increased investments are the most significant in years and our budgetary actions pay down long-term state debt, contribute to the reserve and put California on solid fiscal footing."

Half of low-income children don’t have access to current preschool or head start programs.

Existing Child Care programs have been slashed by 100,000 slots since Great Recession.

Currently, middle-income families face high preschool costs.

Currently, Transitional Kindergarten only serves ¼ of 4 yr-olds.

Blueprint’s Early Education Proposal:

Make Transitional Kindergarten universal for all 4 year-olds, to give all children access to high quality Pre-K programs.

Strengthen Early Care programs serving 0-3 year-olds and wrap-around care for children over 4 years-old.

California families will benefit from improved programs and universal access to quality Early Education, which will improve academic performance, put children on the road to success, and dramatically reduce future costs in other areas of the budget.

Higher Education

Higher Education Background:

Funding for Higher Education cut dramatically during the Great Recession – which has resulted in higher fees, reduced enrollments, and program cutbacks.

The Middle Class Scholarship will begin to offset the increased fees, but holes remain in the otherwise strong Cal Grant program, which limit access to higher education for lower income students.

Planned funding increases for Higher Education are not enough to expand enrollments and restore programs.

Blueprint’s Higher Education Proposal:

Increase funding for Community Colleges, CSU, and UC to keep fees from growing, enable enrollment increases, and improve the quality of educational programs.

Improve Cal Grants:

Increase Award Levels, e.g. provide full award their first year and increase “Access Award” for living expenses and supplies for neediest students.

Increase Access, e.g. expand the number of “Competitive Awards” for students that don’t follow traditional route of higher education soon after high school.

Child Poverty

Child Poverty Background:

Roughly ¼ California children (2.3 million) live in poverty, the highest child poverty rate in the country.

Children growing up in poverty experience life-long consequences.

The physiological brain impacts of poverty harm the academic outcomes of children living in poverty.

The economic impacts of the Great Recession and draconian budget cuts – at both the state and federal level – have worsened child poverty and its consequences in California.

Blueprint’s Child Poverty Proposal:

Improve economic condition of millions of children currently in poverty by lifting hundreds of thousands out of poverty, and others from the depths of poverty:

Expand Earned Income Tax Credit and increase CalWORKs “Earned Income Disregard” to strengthen impact of paychecks.

Improve county Job Training programs to get CalWORKs recipients back to work as quickly as possible.

Create CalFresh “add-on” to provide an additional food benefit for California’s poorest children enrolled in CalWORKs.

Provide modest CalWORKs grant increase.

Health Access

Health Access Background:

California is successfully implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Medi-Cal reimbursement rate cuts during the Great Recession may limit the access to health care that the ACA is intended to improve.

Critical Public Health programs also were cut during the Great Recession, harming public health particularly in low-income communities.

Restore Public Health programs – such as: the Early Mental Health Initiative; Asthma Public Health Initiative; and Black Infant Health – to improve public health and to avoid more expensive health costs down the road.

Jobs Investments

Jobs Background:

California continues to create jobs as the state emerges from the Great Recession.

However, the state’s unemployment rate remains high: 8.7% (but down from 12.4% in the depths of the great recession).

Specific public investments and policies can accelerate job growth, and ensure more Californians are benefiting from the rebounding economy.

Blueprint’s Jobs Investments proposal:

Infrastructure Investments:

Put “one-time” funds to use for such things as clean energy, parks and schools and other one time investments.

Cut the “red tape” and get $500 million in federal drinking water funds out the door that will greatly benefit the struggling areas of the state, including the Central Valley.